Operating mechanism for car-doors.



J. F. McELROY.

OPERATING MECHANISM FOR CAR DOORS.

APPLICATION FILED NOV. 26,1912.

Patented A11 29, 1916.

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J. F. McELROY.

OPERATING MECHANISM FOR CAR DOORS.

APPLICATION TILED NOV.26, 1912- Patented Aug. 29, 1916.

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J. F. McELROY.

OPERATING MECHANISM FOR CAR DOORS.

APPLICATION FILED NOV. 26 Hill.

Patented Aug. 29, 1916.

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J. F. McELROY.

OPERATING MECHANISM FOR CAR moons.

APPLICATION FILED NOV. 26 I912.

Patented Aug. 29, 1916.

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JAMES F. MGELRQY, OF ALBANY, NEOV YORK, ASSIGNOR TO CONSOLIDATED CAR,- I-IEATING COMPANY, A CGRIPGRATION OF WEST VIRGINIA.

OPERATING MECHANISM FOR CAB-DOORS.

Application filed November 26, 1812.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, James F. MoELnoY, a citizen of the United States, residing at Albany, county of Albany, State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Operating Mechanism for Car-Doors, the following being a full, clear, and exact disclosure of the one form of my invention which I at present deem preferable.

For a detailed description of the present form of my invention, reference may be had to the following specification and to the accompanying drawings, which illustrate my invention.

Figure 1 is a general view of my apparatus; Fig. 2 is a plan thereof; Fig. 3 shows the handle shaft; Figs. 4, 5 and 6 show details.

My invention relates to operating mechanism for car doors, particularly street-car doors. It is especially, although not exclusively, designed for doors of the folding type.

I Referring to the drawings, A, A represent the two parts of a folding door hinged to each other, with the part A hinged to the door jamb at the right. This door is shown in its closed position.

B, B represent the two parts of a similar folding door hinged to the door jamb at the left and shown in its open position. Since the operating mechanism for one of these doors is practicallya duplicate of that for the other, I have marked the several elements of one operating mechanism by the numbered letters A and a, the corresponding elements of the other mechanism by the numbered letters B and o, the description being, however, confined to one of the duplicate mechanisms with the understanding that it applies also to the other one.

At the upper and outer corner of the door section A is a roller a, shown best in Fig. 5 but appearing also in Figs. 2 and 4, which travels horizontally between parallel guides a a secured to the under side of the top cross bar of the door frame. That edge of the door therefore travels in a straight line from one side of the door frame to the other while the two parts of the Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Aug. 29, 1916.

Serial No. 733,626.

door will fold together outwardly as illustrated by the doors B, B at the left of Figs. 1 and 2 to open, and will unfold and. lie flat, as illustrated by the doors A, A at the right of Figs. 1 and 2 to close. My operating mechanism for the door begins with a lever arm A extending horizontally along the upper edge of the door and above it, the arm having a vertical shaft A passing through the horizontal beam D and a bearing plate D on the upper side of the beam. This shaft A is located near the meeting edges of the two door sections and is therefore at an intermediate point in the total width of the door. The arm A at its outer end enters a horizontal groove in the socket piece A which swivels on a vertical pin forming part of a casting A as is particularly shown in Fig. 5. Thus as the arm A? and its shaft turn outward the end of the arm can slide in the said groove and the socket piece can rotate with respect to the door, the parts coming finally into the position illustrated by the open doors B, B It will also be observed that the point of apalication of the operating force to the door is at or near the center of the outer section A, with the result that, when the door is open and is to be closed, the operating force will act primarily on the outer one of the two sections tending to draw it away from the inner section and in a direction which, in a general way, is parallel to the guideway along which the outer end of that section travels. Hence there is no tendency of the outer section to bind and lock the inner one as might be the case if the operating force were applied to the inner one. The shaft A of the arm A is provided with suitable operating gear worked by the operators handle at some distant point, so that the operator can swing the arm and thereby work the doors. One form of gearing is shown in the drawings. A pinion A is secured to the shaft A above the bearing plate and a larger pinion or gear wheel A is also mounted on the said bearing plate and meshes with the pinion A to rotate it. On the wheel A is a radial arm A connected by a rod A to a crank A by an offset A The crank A is secured to a vertical shaft A (shown in detail in Fig. 3) within a tubular shaft B which serves the same purpose'for the doors B, B The shaft A has secured to it a handle A which also forms thelower bearing for the shaft by resting on the tubular standard E rising up from the rail E which surrounds the conductors station on the platform of a street car. An upper bearing F 3 for shaft A is held in place by the brace rods F F The tubular shaft B has a similar operating handle 13.

In Fig. 6 isshown the details of the connecting rod A The screw a which enters a socket a pivoted to the crank arm A serves to adjust thelength of the rod. Its other end enters a tubular section a where it has a shoulder abutting against the washer a that bears on one end of spring a*, while an extension (1 passes through the spring and carries a nut on the outside of a corresponding washer a on the opposite end of spring a and the washer a bears against an internal shoulder onthe section a Thus the connecting rod has a double acting spring resiliency yielding to either compression or tension on the rod. The left hand end of tubular section a screws on a section a which is rectangular in cross section and contains two adjusting nuts a a on the screw a while a plate a screwed to the inside of section a locks the nuts against turning but allows them to slide longitudinally. These nuts serve to adjust the eX- tent of compression or extension of the connectingrod. The rod a is riveted to section a to complete the connecting rod A and passes through and is pinned fast to the offset A which is pivoted to crank arm A The relation of the operating parts is such that the door-working arm A can be easily and certainly given a swingof about 160 de grees without binding or sticking, because of the location of. the axis of the said arm and the positive transmission thereto of the handle movement due to the absence of any approach to dead center in the operating Joints after the mechanism is unlocked and put into operation. The movement communicated to the large ear wheel A is not more than 90 degrees. The operating handle, by virtue of the offset A and the spring connecting rod will have a movement slightly greater than 180 degrees, the last part of the handle-movement, after the door has been opened or closed serving to compress the spring,'which then reacts to throw the handle-shaft crank arm A slightly over dead center and so. lock the mechanism and the doors in the position to, which they have been brought. Thus in Fig. 2 the door A,'A for example, can not be opened by pushing on it, since such a push would be converted into a longitudinal thrust on connecting rod A which will compress the spring therein, to the slight extent permitted by the stop nut a, but will not move the connecting rod itself because the offset A under a longitudinal thrust or pull on the connecting rod, will merely act radially on the crank arm A The same is true of the opened door 13,13 and it is only after the handle has been moved suliiciently to bring the. axis of the pivot between A and A out of line with the axis of the vertical handle shaft A that the mechanism will be unlocked and free to operate. This preliminary unlocking movement, as well as the final locking movement is provided for by the spring in the connecting rod, although any other expedient for getting the required resiliency in the parts will serve the same purpose. Moreover, with particular reference to the door-closing action it will be observed that the line of movement of the outer end of arm B (indicated by the dotted line in Fig. 2) is in a direction to draw outer section B away from inner section B, so that the former, if it were free from the guides 6,5 would rotate in an anti-clockwise direction around the hinge that joins it to the latter. In other words, the doorclosing agent acts on the outer section in a line falling inside of the hinge that joins the two sections.

\Vhat I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. An operating mechanism for car doors comprising a lever arm journaled on a ver tical axis at or near the middle of the door, a socket piece swiveled to the door and having a sliding engagement with said arm, intermeshing gears for swinging said arm on its axis to move the door, and an ope 'ating connection between one of said gears, and a distant operators handle.

2. An operating mechanism for car doors, comprising a lever arm journaled on a vertical axis at or near the center of the door, means for providing a sliding and pivotal connection between said arm and the door, gearing for rotating said arm more than ninety degrees, and an operating connection between said gearing and a distant operators handle.

3. An operating mechanism for car doors coi'nprising a lever arm mounted on a vertical axis at the center or middle of the door, a socket piece swiveled to the door and having a sliding engagement with said arm, intermeshing gearing for rotating said arm, a vertical shaft turned by the operators handle, and means actuated by said shaft for operating one of the gears of said gearing.

4-. An operating mechanism for a folding door having two hinged sections, comprising a lever arm mounted on a vertical axis at or near the Junction of the two sections with a sliding and rotating connection between said arm and one of the door sections, a horizontal guide for the outer door section, a gear for operating the said arm, and an operating connection for the said gear leading to a distant oberators handle.

5. An operating mechanism for a car door, comprising a. lever arm mounted on a vertical axis at an intermediate point in the width of the door and above it, with a sliding and rotating connection between said arm and the door, a gear for operating said arm, a connecting rod for operating said gear, and a vertical shaft worked by the operators handle with a crank connecting it to the said rod.

6. An operating mechanism for a car door, comprising a lever arm mounted on a vertical axis at an intermediate point in the width of the door, and an operating gear for said arm, an operators handle, and means for connecting said handle with said gear, said means including a combined tension and pressure spring.

7. An operating mechanism for car doors, comprising an operating device attached to the door, an operators handle located at a distance therefrom, a crank arm operated thereby, and a connecting rod between said crank arm and said operating device, said connecting rod being provided with yieldable means acting longitudinally thereof to retain the crank arm past the dead center, whereby movement of the door is prevented except by operating said handle.

8. An operating mechanism for car doors, comprising an operating device attached to the door, an operators handle located at a distance therefrom, a crank arm operated thereby and a connecting rod between said handle and said ooeratin device said con necting rod being formed of sections, and a spring interposed between and cooperating with said sections to retain the crank arm past the dead center whereby movement of the door is prevented except by operating said handle.

9. The combination with a door, of a lever arm mounted on a vertical axis at an intermediate point in the width of the door with a sliding and rotating connection between the arm and door, and a yielding operating mechanism between said arm and the operators handle.

10. An operating mechanism for car doors, comprising a lever armmounted on a vertical axis, a tooth gearing for operating said arm, a yielding and reciprocating rod for working said gearing, and a dead-centered crank device for operating said rod.

11. An operating mechanism for car doors comprising a lever arm attached to the door,

gears for operating the same, an o-perators handle, and a connecting rod between said handle and said gears, said connecting rod being provided with yieldable means for locking the mechanism past the dead center.

12. An operating mechanism for car doors, comprising a lever arm, a rotating gear therefor, a connecting rod, an offset on said rod, a crank pivoted to said offset, a shaft worked by the operators handle for turning said crank, and a spring interposed in the line of pressure between said handle and the door.

13. The combination with a folding car door having two hinged-together sections, of'

a lever arm mounted on a vertical axis above the door at an intermediate point in the width thereof, a pinion on the said arm, a gear wheel operating the pinion, a longitudinally yielding reciprocating rod for operating the gear, a crank connected to said rod, and a handle-operated shaft for said crank.

14:. A door operating mechanism, comprising a lever arm movable through an arc of more than ninety degrees, a reduction gear connected with said arm and movable through a shorter are than the said arm, and an operating lever arm therefor having a yielding action and movable through an arc of one hundred and eighty degrees or more.

15. An operating mechanism for doors comprising an operating device attached to a door, a crank shaft, a connecting rod between said crank shaft and said operating device, said connecting rod being provided with yieldable means for throwing and looking the shaft past the dead center.

16. An operating mechanism for doors comprising an operating device attached to a door, a crank shaft provided with an offset, a connecting rod between said operating device and said offset, said connecting rod being provided with yieldable means for throwing and locking the crank shaft past the dead center.

17. The combination with a swinging door having two hinged together sections, of a guide for the outer section, hinging devices for the inner section, an operating device, and means for providing a positive slidable pivotal connection between said operating device and the outer section of the door at or near the middle point in the width thereof.

18. The combination with a swinging door having two hinged-together sections, of a straight guide for the outer section, hinging devices connected to the inner edge of the inner section, andan operating device having one end applied at or near the center of the outer section and the other end supported at or near the joint between the two sections.

19. The combination with a swinging door having two hinged-together sections, of a hand, before two subscribing witnesses, this guide for the outer section, and an operat- 23rd day of November, 1912. in device for the door applied to the outer 1 se dtion thereof and extending approximately JAMES MDELIMOX' parallel With said guide When the door is Witnesses:

I closed. HERBERT A. CAuLmNs,

In Witness whereof I have-hereunto set my CLAREN on PALMER.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents. Washington, D. G. 

